The Spectacle Blog

Today, he conceded defeat in Nigeria's elections. Goodluck Jonathan took office in 2010 and was elected in his own right in 2011. Needless to say, he had the most interesting name of any head of state in the entire world.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has seen his dreams of being President in 2016 fade away, like the waning career of his live-in girlfriend, Food Network's Sandra Lee, but he's not about to give up his quest to be a progressive hero.

Responding to the outcry over Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Cuomo is bravely banning all non-essential state-sponsored travel to Indiana, in the hopes that preventing possibly twelve New Yorkers from interacting with the government of a midwestern state will somehow convince Indiana Gov. Mike Pence that he has sided, somehow, with anti-gay bigots. Before Indiana can be thoroughly relieved that it will get a short but well-earned break from New York, they will first have to read through Cuomo's strongly worded letter admonishing their "legally sanctioned discrimination" and whatnot.

Apparently. Bill Clinton is a fan of House of Cards, and told the show's star Kevin Spacey so when he met Spacey at an event recently.

According to Clinton, who was known for being a particularly effective President, the show, which depicts the rise of Frank Underwood from lowly Congressman to White House hopeful, is "99%" true. The 1% that's not true? How easily Frank Underwood can move a bill through Congress.

Former President Bill Clinton told "House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey the D.C. drama is a lot closer to fact than fiction.

"He tells me, 'I love that 'House of Cards,''" Spacey said in an interview with Gotham Magazine about the Netflix series.

Spacey went into an impression of the former president when describing Clinton's review of the show.

"Kevin, 99% of what you do on that show is real. The 1% you get wrong is you could never get an education bill passed that fast," Spacey said, recounting Clinton's comment.

Edward Snowden doesn't seem to be enjoying his Russian home - word has it that he's looking to barter a plea deal with the United States in order to make a return - but in the wake of his massive intelligence leak that blew the lid off of the NSA's data collection program, it was at least assumed that his actions were responsible for halting, or at least reeling in, the program itself.

I blacked out for a good portion of the 2012 election cycle, because at the time, I was helping out the Romney campaign and competing with the rest of the GOP to see how quickly I could spiral into a substance abuse problem, just to make it all seem okay. But I do remember, vaguely, Harry Reid's speech on the floor of Congress, where he claimed that Mitt Romney hadn't paid taxes for the last decade, because an anonymous source told him so and had the records to prove it.

Remember when Hillary Clinton stood in front of a press gaggle at the United Nations and claimed that she used her personal email in order to simplify her communications routine, as her tiny little female brain was unable to account for two mobile devices at the same time, despite her quick adaptation to the iPad in addition to her phone? Sure, we all do. I missed lunch for it. The things I do for you people.

Second, even if Allah wills a nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran, the same cannot be said of the will of the Senate. Of course, the Obama Administration will probably try to get around the Senate. The Obama Administration may answer to the will of Allah, but a Republican administration answers to the will of Americans.

But there's a reasonable explanation. The RFRAs that were passed in the 9 other states in question only applied to religious assemblies and institutions, not to for profit entities. One of the states Emily cites is Louisiana which states its law is applicable "to a church, association of churches or other religious order, body or institution which qualifies for exemption from taxation under Section 501(c)(3) or (d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986."

It's true that the Hobby Lobby decision has effectively amended those statutes, but that decision is clearly beyond the control of the state legislature in Louisiana and the other 8 states with RFRA statutes. Thus Wilco has no reason to cancel their tour dates in those states.

Wilco, which is a band that you'll know if, like me, you were a depressed kid in college in the early 2000s, who thought that listening to whiny musicians would make you seem "cooler" to the other depressed kids in college in the early 2000s, has cancelled it's Indianapolis tour date in protest over the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate opens today in Boston, and the ribbon cutting, which featured a line of VIPs and high-profile speakers, has lent itself to a wealth of unintentionally hilarious Ted Kennedy tributes.

First, President Obama, who opened the Center, took a moment to consider a world where we were all more like Ted Kennedy: a world where, I suppose, we all conducted ourselves with blatant disregard for the human beings around us, as we failed repeatedly to bridge any sort of partisan divide, pursuing our own dogged commitment to amassing influence and tolerating large quantities of alcohol.

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